A boat or other watercraft often needs to be moored or docked to a dock, another boat, or any other structure at water's edge. Apparatus or devices for mooring or docking boats must resist forces of nature which might unmoor the boat, including severe weather conditions, rough water, or high winds, conditions which can either damage the boat or the dock, or cause the boat to break free of its mooring and be lost.
The action of tides causes the vertical position of a watercraft relative to a dock to change over time. Accordingly, it is important for mooring devices to accommodate such shifts in the relative height of the watercraft to the docking structure.
The easier it is for a watercraft user to moor his craft to the dock, the more likely the mooring apparatus will be used consistently and correctly, thus optimally securing the watercraft.
Accordingly, it is desirable for a mooring apparatus to balance the need to moor the watercraft to the docking structure securely with the need for the apparatus to be relatively simple to operate. It is also important for the apparatus to be able to withstand and function in the damp marine environment associated with the mooring of watercraft. Furthermore, it is preferable for the mooring apparatus to be relatively inexpensive to manufacture and maintain.
There are a number of prior art devices which have been used to address some of the purposes and goals outlined above, but such solutions suffer from their own drawbacks and disadvantages. For example, bumpers or fenders may be attached either to the watercraft or to the docking structure to prevent the watercraft from hitting or rubbing against the dock and being damaged due to the action of wind and waves. One drawback to these fenders, however, is that they may cause aesthetic or moderate structural damage to a hull of the watercraft or the side of the dock. In addition, such fenders generally must be used in combination with mooring ropes or other devices in order to secure the watercraft to the dock. Accordingly, mooring devices have been developed which both separate the boat from the structure to which it is to be moored and secure the boat relative to such structure.
Many of these devices employ a rigid, elongated body which is used as a separating bar to cause a boat to stand off from its dock, such as the devices shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,499,591 and 5,046,442. These devices and others with similar approaches, however, may be cumbersome to use and complex to manufacture and assemble. For example, certain prior art devices of this type make use of guy ropes for mooring the watercraft in combination with rigid standoff arms. The need to accommodate both a flexible guy rope and relatively rigid standoff arm makes design or operation of the device unduly complicated. Furthermore, although the use of mooring ropes or guy ropes is very traditional in the marine environment because of the flexibility of such ropes, they may become worn and, under severe conditions, difficult for the operator of the craft to manipulate to secure the boat as required.
Still other prior art devices, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,638, may be somewhat complex, with a number of different interacting components, making the devices difficult to manufacture, relatively expensive, and cumbersome to operate under certain conditions.
In addition, some prior art devices are difficult to store safely after a watercraft has been removed from the dock. For example, the devices may hang over the dock edge and be struck by other craft, resulting in damage either to the craft or the dock edge itself.
When natural forces move the moored watercraft relative to the dock, such movements may place undue strain on certain prior art mooring devices, causing them to wear out prematurely, rupture, collapse, or otherwise fail.
Accordingly, there is a need for a mooring apparatus which addresses the various drawbacks and disadvantages of the prior art discussed above.
There is a further need for a mooring apparatus which can accommodate wave action, tidal action or other movement of the watercraft relative to the dock, without subjecting the mooring apparatus to excessive forces.
There is a still further need for a mooring apparatus which is relatively straightforward and easy to operate.